ENC 1102 BROWN 7/18/2012 SONNETS

FIXED FORM Sonnets use a fixed form of poetry, with a set pattern of lines, meter, rhyme and stanzas A stanza is a grouping of lines, usually set off by space, and that usually has a set pattern of meter and rhyme. Fixed form is contrasted with open form, which has no set pattern

SONNETS Sonnets have been popular in English since the sixteenth century. Two basic types: Italian (or Petrarchan) English (or Shakespearean)

ITALIAN SONNETS Consist of two stanzas: Octave : Has an abbaabba rhyme scheme Usually presents a situation, an attitude, or a problem Sestet : Rhyme scheme varies, but typical ones are cdecde, cdcdcd, and cdccdc Usually comments on or resolves the situation established in the octave

JOHN KEATS, ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN'S HOMER Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,a And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;b Round many western islands have I beenb Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.a Oft of one wide expanse had I been tolda That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne; b Yet did I never breathe its pure sereneb Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: a Then felt I like some watcher of the skiesc When a new planet swims into his ken;d Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyesc He star'd at the Pacific — and all his mend Look'd at each other with a wild surmise —c Silent, upon a peak in Darien.d

ENGLISH SONNET Organized into 4 stanzas: Three quatrains : Typically rhyme abab cdcd efef More suited for English because of fewer rhyming words Couplet : One pair of rhymed lines, gg Usually brings about the conclusion or most pronounced break in theme

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, SONNET 130 My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;a Coral is far more red than her lips' red;b If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;a If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.b I have seen roses damask, red and white,c But no such roses see I in her cheeks;d And in some perfumes is there more delightc Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.d I love to hear her speak, yet well I knowe That music hath a far more pleasing sound;f I grant I never saw a goddess go;e My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:f And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rareg As any she belied with false compare.g

WHAT PROPERTIES OF A SONNET DO YOU SEE IN THE FOLLOWING POEM?

EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY, I WILL PUT CHAOS INTO FOURTEEN LINES I will put Chaos into fourteen lines And keep him there; and let him thence escape If he be lucky; let him twist, and ape Flood, fire, and demon --- his adroit designs Will strain to nothing in the strict confines Of this sweet order, where, in pious rape, I hold his essence and amorphous shape, Till he with Order mingles and combines. Past are the hours, the years of our duress, His arrogance, our awful servitude: I have him. He is nothing more nor less Than something simple not yet understood; I shall not even force him to confess; Or answer. I will only make him good.

WHAT ABOUT THIS ONE?

GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS, GOD’S GRANDEUR The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod? Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil; And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod. And for all this, nature is never spent; There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; And though the last lights off the black West went Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs — Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.